While NBC will air the ceremony in primetime on Friday evening in the US, the ceremony was carried live — sans commentary this year — online.
WINTER OLYMPICS: Here are the biggest moments from the opening ceremony
The 2018 Winter Olympics officially kicked off on Friday with the opening ceremony held in the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.
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Below we will follow along with the biggest moments from the opening ceremony.
The show opened with fireworks and an incredible view of the stadium with the mountain events lit up in the background.
The stadium, which was built just for the Olympics and will be torn down later this year, is a pentagon to represent the five goals of the games: the economy, technology, the arts, peace, and the environment.
The show opened with a large white tiger being followed by a group of children out of cave.
The children appeared to discover a world of other mythical creatures.
The opening scene was followed by the introduction of the President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in.
The ceremony then moved into the pageantry of the event, including a choreographed dance of drummers.
The South Korean flag was then carried into the stadium.
The flag was carried by past Korean Olympic champions.
The parade of nations began with Greece as usual, due to their role in the origin of the Olympics.
The countries then enter alphabetically, based on their names in the language of the host country.
The American delegation was largest ever in Winter Olympics history, with 242 athletes.
And everybody wanted a selfie with Lindsey Vonn or Shaun White.
Vice President Mike Pence was in attendance.
A fake Donald Trump and fake Kim Jong-un were spotted in the stands and were kicked out.
The team from Bermuda came out in shorts!
Former NBA basketball player Yao Ming was also at the opening ceremony.
The athletes from Russia walked out behind an Olympic flag and without a flag bearer.
Pita Taufatofua of Tonga, who became famous for going shirtless and oiled up in Rio for the Summer Olympics, is back as a cross-country skier. And yes, he was shirtless and oiled up again!
Typically, the host nation walks out last, but this year the South Korean and North Korean teams walked out together behind a flag with the unified Korea.
After the parade, the children were back and floating on a boat in the sea.
Unfortunately, NBC did not provide commentary for the live stream of the opening ceremony as they have done for past Olympics. As a result, the cultural explanations for much of the performance were lost on most Americans until the tape-delay broadcast.
But even without the cultural references, the ceremony was visually stunning.
The president of the Olympics organizing committee addressed the crowd. Unfortunately, no translation or summary was provided by NBC.
The president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, then spoke and appeared to take a shot at Russia by telling the athletes to "stay clean."
And the children are back and this time they have candles.
Musicians In-Kown Jeon, Eun-mi Lee, Hyun-woo Ha and Ji-yeong performed.
They sang a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine."
The show then moved to the ski slopes with an awesome light display that included a floating silhouette of a snowboarder who followed the real snowboarders down the mountain.
Snowboarders then went down the mountain with flares.
At the bottom, the snowboarders lit an Olympic rings in the snow.
And a floating silhouette of a snowboarder morphed into floating Olympic rings
The Olympic torch was carried into and around the stadium by various Korean athletes.
Including golfer Inbee Park (on the right).
Figure skater and 2010 Olympic gold medalist Yuna Kim lit the Olympic cauldron.
It's official. The Games have begun!
More fireworks.
The kiddos are back and they're excited!
They released a peace dove.
There was one final performance and there was fire.
And sparks.
Let the games begin!